The School of Public Policy Releases Ground-breaking Report on Preventative Care: Could Free 1,632 Hospital Beds Each Year

CALGARY, Jan. 22, 2015 /CNW/ - Over the course of more than 30 years, a series of Canadian government commissions have identified the importance of "bending the cost curve" to sustain publicly funded health care through health promotion and disease prevention. So far, however, the level of public investment in prevention represents only a small portion of total public health care expenditure, largely consisting of traditional public health initiatives such as vaccinations, disease screening and information campaigns.  According to Jack Mintz, Director and Palmer chair of the School of Public Policy, "the increase in health care costs is simply unsustainable in a tax funded system.  Everyone who objectively studies this issue knows that.  That's why The School is focused on finding solutions to run-away health costs.  Those solutions should absolutely include innovation in preventative care." 

Health economists Daniel Dutton, Herbert Emery, Thomas Mullie and Jennifer Zwicker at The School of Public Policy have undertaken a deep and comprehensive study of one preventative health program – the Pure North S'Energy program, and followed its participants over time to determine their health outcomes and health system usage.  They then measured this data against control group samples provided by AHS. 

The conclusion?  The Pure North S'Energy Foundation's preventative health care program can lead to genuine and significant near-term cost savings for Canada's single-payer health care system. Participants in the first year of the program required 25 per cent fewer hospital visits and 17 per cent fewer emergency room visits compared to the control group. Among those who persisted in the program for a year or longer, the effects were even more significant: 45 per cent fewer hospital visits in the year after joining, and 28 per cent fewer visits to emergency departments, compared to the control group.

This represents real cost savings for a public health service: From $388 per person who joined the program to $677 per person who persisted beyond the first year. As a proportion of annual health spending for these participants on hospitals, emergency departments and general practitioners, this represents a cost reduction ranging from 22 to 39 per cent. If the Alberta government were able to implement this kind of program province-wide (at an estimated cost of $500 per participant), and were to realize similar results in terms of reduced strain on acute care services, it is possible that the province could free-up the equivalent of 1,632 hospital beds every year. That is roughly the same as building two entirely new hospitals each on the scale of Calgary's Foothills Medical Centre.

This demonstrates that "bending the cost curve" for public health care spending is not merely something that is realizable in the long term, but rather in the immediate future, as quickly as within a year after this kind of program could be implemented province-wide. And yet, the near-term savings in acute care services represent only the first wave of benefits. The prevalence of chronic diseases and conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer and mental illness, have been rising and are projected to keep doing so over the coming decade. The Pure North program aims to prevent and address these health conditions and chronic diseases through a combination of screening and testing, lifestyle modification, nutrition education, the identification of nutritional deficiencies, and dietary supplements. The long-term benefits of a Pure North-style program implemented province-wide in Alberta are likely to be that much greater as the prevalence of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and mental illness is tempered through the use of widespread preventative care.

Access to data was provided by both Pure North S'Energy and AHS.  The School of Public Policy acknowledges that funding has been received from Pure North S'Energy and used to offset the costs of research, including data collection and researcher time.  The design of the research was determined by the team at The School and the findings were vetted according to The School's protocol for all research; namely, the process of double-blind peer review.  The research was then vetted again by an independent area research director at The School prior to final editing.  No personal benefit was derived by anyone associated with The School of Public Policy.  

The full research is available at LINK.

SOURCE The School of Public Policy - University of Calgary

Media contact: Morten Paulsen, [email protected], 403.399.3377